Improve Dispute Resolution Process

If your right to be compensated for a work-place injury is challenged, your first port of call is the Accident Compensation Conciliation Service (ACCS). But now, the toothless tiger may be stripped of its few remaining powers and reduced to a mere talking shop.

Although it's been a toothless tiger for years, it is still a place where injured workers can make some progress in claiming their rights.

Mr Hanks wants the have the ACCS's powers reduced so that it's a mere talking shop and have WorkCover dictate most of what it does. This would see at least an extra 6000 claims being forced into the courts for resolution. The VTHC estimates it will cost workers and employers at least an extra $60 million a year. This means $30 million each more than the current system.

It would be a lawyers' picnic. It would blow-out the delays in court resolutions of WorkCover claims by at least two years. And extend the suffering and delay medical treatment for injured workers. It would stop the treatment of injuries that should be treated and fixed quickly. It would turn basic ordinary injuries into a battle ground that would prevent workers from pursuing their claims and create a financial gift to lawyers. For Injuries that could be fixed fast and the worker back to work quickly, it would extend the process into a complex legal battle that would mean that the injuries would become long-term and chronic.

This is an ill-considered and, in practice, a mad plan.

The VTHC says workers' claims must be resolved quickly. Unions want a one-stop shop that has the power to conciliate issues - and - if that fails, arbitrate. The unions' solution is speedy, simple, fair and economically efficient.

It would deliver the best results for workers and employers.
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